Grant to Support Women's Programs in West Africa

DAKAR, Senegal -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $19 million grant to a poverty reduction and women's empowerment project supported by the United Nations Development Programme and designed to boost the productivity and income of women farmers using low-cost, mechanized power.

The four-year grant will help establish 600 new sustainable, rural agro-enterprises in the West African countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. The center piece of the project is the multifunctional platform (MFP), a diesel-run engine mounted on a chassis to which a variety of processing equipment can be attached, including cereal mill, husker, battery charger, and joinery and carpentry equipment. At least 24 of these MFPs will be biofuel-based.

To read the full press release, visit the United Nations Development Programme's Web site